Concentration and meditation

Attention with mental force on an object = concentration

Attention without mental force on an object = meditation

Attention on the same object without force for an extended time also creates a state called concentration. Same result, but reached with lesser expenditure of energy.

Attention without force, aka meditation, is initially subject to the impurities and complexities present in the mind-field. They raise distractions and attention moves away from the initial object, as is usual outside of meditation. This movement away also happens due to outside sensations like sounds which cause immediate mental reactions.

In Heartfulness/Sahaj Marg, rejuvenation or cleaning removes the mental sources of distractions, and reduces reactivity.

Training the mind-field in meditation consists of accepting distractions have occurred, every time, and returning to the original object as lightly as possible. The subtlest possible way is to merely recognise the movement of attention. The return is automatic and natural.

Reduction in energy of a mental activity is termed as the conversion - laya - of rajas and tamas into sattva.

Stacks and thoughts in meditation

 Consider a stack used in a cafeteria for plates. It is spring-loaded to work on only one plate at a time. Plates are inserted into the stack singly, one on top of the other. To take out the lowest plate one must take out all the plates above it, one at a time.

Now imagine a thought is like a plate. When your attention is upon it, it is at the top of the stack. The next thought adds to the stack and one gets back to the previous one by letting go of this one. Related thoughts can keep piling up in this stack until attention shifts to a different stack altogether.

This is a limited metaphor since the mind need not behave like a stack or even a set of stacks. Still it is useful for describing meditation.

When practising meditation, we start with one point/location or thought or idea or concept and then rest our attention upon it for a while. When we realise our attention is no longer on that initial object, we try to come back to it. So, there is one plate on the attention stack first, and then another plate appears on top of it. Take out the second plate and the first one pops up to the top and regains our attention.

The effortless (or less effort) part of meditation lies in the ease with which one gets back to the first plate. One idea is to understand that attention is a gripping action. Relaxing one's mental grip or letting go of the thought causes that thought to drift away or somehow disappear. Engaging with the new thought - in any way whatsoever - gives it more attention and thus more energy or effort gets used to remove the second plate.

By this metaphor, meditation should ultimately be a stack of just one plate for a long time. As long as 12 seconds first is dhaaraNa. Then 12x12 - 144 seconds is dhyaana. (Beyond that, an exponentially longer time, comes samaadhi.)

The first 12 seconds is defined by a "location", which normally denotes a physical location for one's attention. But it could also be a mental location. A list of possibilities shows its generality - an idea, a feeling, an attitude, the mental counterpart of a physical activity (like an audible or subverbal japa).

Simplicity and generality result in fewer and fewer words or thoughts. Feeling is more subtle than thinking, being even more subtle than feeling.

Thoughts and progress in meditation

Here's one perspective of progress based on thoughts in meditation [1]. This seem independent of the type of meditative practice:

1. Random thoughts, followed by their chains or sequences of thoughts, as one's attention drifts. Daydreams and fantasies.
   
2. Random thoughts arising quickly, but no chains. One is able to detach or relax one's attention from each new starting thought.
   
3. Specific thoughts around current practical problems, in the conscious or subconscious mind.
4. Answers, solutions, guidelines. Inspired or intuitive ideas.
   
5. No thought arises uninvited. Inspiration from one's superconscious may be requested.
   

Stages 4 and 5 occur after a fair amount of introspection, releasing self-created layers and complexities, and changing one's habitual behaviour.

NOTES

[1] Arya, U., (Sw. Veda Bharati). 1989. Superconscious meditation (Problem Thoughts). pp.90-102. Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy.

Thinking and meditation

(from Daaji - mostly verbatim)

Meditation as an act is resting the attention on something effortlessly.

Every human being does this activity multiple times every day, especially when doing something enjoyable (such as eating ice-cream).

This also happens during work, business, planning meals for the family, etc.

Spiritual meditation is effortless focus on an infinite object.

(based on Daaji's talks & writings; paraphrased and extended)

Meditation training using one's own mind is about effortless focus on something that is not immediately enjoyable.

In Sahaj Marg meditation, one places one's attention on the divine light in one's heart. The source of that light then pulls one's attention towards itself.

The source being infinite, one's mind cannot grasp it and has trouble resting stably in the heart.

When attention has drifted away from the light onto another object, and one becomes aware of that change, one should simply relax the attention, the mental grip. It will naturally glide back to the previous object, the heart and the light within.

Learning to focus effortlessly for a long time on an object means using lesser and lesser energy to deal with the movement of attention. [1]

One should also understand that attention is one's mind gripping something, consciously or subconsciously. Relaxing is all that is needed to un-grip, not yanking it away or cutting it or anything else needing more effort.

Progress in meditation may be defined as the ability to focus on subtler and subtler objects for longer times. But in Heartfulness meditation, the object of meditation stays the same (being already infinite and deliberately undefined) but our understanding becomes subtler.

(My speculations)

Cleaning is a way of returning to the condition (of our heart, mind, and body) received, or gifted to us, by our morning meditation.

Prayer meditation, along with going over the day's activities, is introspection; so as to change ourselves with the help of that which is inside our own hearts, as well in the heart of each and every human being.

NOTES

[1] Daaji writes that after thinking - effortless focus - on the object comes feeling the object - without words or thoughts, and after feeling comes being the object. The Yoga Sutras put it differently - the object alone stays in conscious awareness, and awareness of meditation and meditator are lost during that time.

Daaji also says that after being there is becoming and then one goes beyond. These two are subtler states leading to the next level.

The important point, though, is thinking is only one of the many activities of the mind.

Why meditate?

Why meditate?

Or, why do spiritual practice at all?

One interesting reason is, to evolve one's mind to subtler levels, to expand its capabilities. A different perspective, somewhat complementary, is to prevent one's mind from atrophying, from losing its ability to sustain subtle, but simple, thoughts. The dynamic nature of the mind means it either progresses or regresses.

Let me try to explain with a simple model of a human being [1]

 

I           E

N    D

SI

--------

M    D

IN

--------

BODY

--------

OUTSIDE

Humans are primarily distinguished by their ability to think, to use, more than other species, that part of themselves which is not physical, the non-body. But, like other species, humans also naturally learn and share their knowledge with their own species.

So, thinking is natural to the mind, the non-physical part of a human being.

What kind of thinking does the mind do? Consider these four types of increasingly subtle thoughts, about what is outside the physical body, about the physical body itself, about what is inside the body - the mind - itself, and lastly, about other mental concepts inside the mind. [2]

The mind is constantly thinking. But it may or may not be aware of its own activity. If one observes one's thoughts, the vast majority of them - in frequency, duration, and intensity - are about the outside. Fewer are about the body, and even fewer about the mind. Very rarely are our thoughts about the inside. Conceptual thoughts, yes, but again about the outside - the world and other people. And, if at all about oneself, thoughts about oneself in relation (and usually negative at that) to others.

Consider this analogy. A diver can sink naturally to a certain depth just by body weight. Using momentum - by diving - one can go deeper. Once the buoyant force of water matches the body weight, the diver stays, or is held, at that depth. Greater depths can be reached by increasing one's weight, by holding a boulder, as done by pearl divers, for example.

Imagine the opposite situation, floating or diving up into the sky. Instead of increasing weight, one has to reduce weight to counteract gravity. One can  float up to even greater heights naturally by converting the solid matter of one's body to gaseous matter.

Now, consider thoughts in the mind.

Thoughts about the body are heavier or grosser than the lighter or subtler thoughts about the mind itself. Thoughts about concrete material things outside the body are similarly grosser. Thoughts about ideas and concepts, and about the inside of the mind, are subtler.

Think about energy.

How much energy is needed by mentally to contemplate changing the position of a window in a room? How much energy is needed by one's mind and body to physically make the change?

Obviously, thinking is subtler than physical action.

Extend the idea of reduction in energy to subtlety of thoughts. A subtler thought should require less energy than a grosser thought. Or, if that may be tough to swallow, a simpler idea should require less energy than a complex one. As one's thoughts go to subtler and subtler levels [3] inside, less and less energy is needed. Not less time, but less energy.

But, like one's physical solidity having to become physical vapour to float higher in the sky, one's thoughts have to become lighter to reach more subtle levels. It is easy to understand or imagine that more and more relaxation of one's mind is needed to have subtler and subtler thoughts. So, the opposite and generally-accepted idea, that spiritual practice - or subtle thinking - must be mentally strenuous is axiomatically wrong. Research [4] has validated this assumption.

Reaching simpler or subtler levels of thought requires not just a relaxed mind, but also time. And thus patience. [5]

Finally, habit. If one has never or rarely thought at a subtle level, what are the chances one will do so? Once habituated to thinking only at a particular gross level, or to particular types of thought, one's mind continues that type of activity. Habits, after all, can comfort and give emotional support. But, the nice thing about the mind is its plasticity - it gets used to thinking at simpler and subtler levels also very easily. It just needs time to relax without nagging!

NOTES

[1] A sad attempt (!) at showing arcs of concentric circles, from smaller to larger:

inside -> mind -> body -> outside.

[2] The concept of something beyond the mind, which the mind cannot and will never be able to grasp, is not considered here.

[3] At subtler and subtler or deeper and deeper levels inside, attributes and concepts become simpler, with minimal details. E.g., at the subtlest conceptual level of a principle common to everything is simple be-ing, or existence, in philosophical terms. Another example - in Advaita, Brahman is described using only three words - existence, consciousness, bliss.

[4] See brief note on Krishna and Buddha in Spiritual Illiteracy

[5] Imagine a wildlife photographer. She may have to wait for days or weeks in the jungle for the animal to show up, be visible long enough, and also when there is sufficient light to get a decent shot! Fortunately, such external circumstances are not needed in meditation.